10 Rules For Corporate Success

This feature is part of AskMen.com's HarperCollins Publishers Celebrity Author series.

<!— Harper Collins Link ENDS here —> <!— 8: Article Text —> In this excerpt from Tom Markert's You Can't Win A Fight With Your Boss & 55 Other Rules For Success, the senior executive at ACNielsen presents 10 practical rules that every employee, manager and executive must follow in order to find corporate success.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said this during the sixth century BC. It is fantastic advice, and it has lived through the ages. The fact that you are reading this — taking a step — means you will have an advantage over your competitors.

You can learn from the past as well as from others, and certainly from your own successes and failures. The process of learning will accelerate your path to correct action, and taking correct action is what will get you ahead inside companies of any size at a faster pace.

Working your way up inside a company can be a great adventure, even a wild ride. There is no magic formula to ensure success, but there are some black-and-white rules you must follow if you want to get to the top. I have drawn upon my 20 years of experience with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Citicorp, and most recently information giant ACNielsen to write the rules that I hope will help to propel you to the top. So, if you are willing to learn, read on!

Follow these rules and you might just get to that corner office; ignore them and you might end up as roadkill — lying dead by the side of the corporate highway as others drive right past you.

Before I begin, a general rule that should always be applied is the rule to work hard and smart.

rule 1

No one is entitled to anything!

Hear this now: No one inside a company is entitled to anything. Not one thing. Not ever. If you think you are entitled to a promotion, to more money or to a big office, you are not.

Business has nothing to do with entitlement — it’s about achievement. If you consistently deliver the goods, your rewards will come.

I am not in favor of staff programs that reward seniority or tenure. The stakes for a new employee should be the same as those for a long-term employee. In some countries teachers have their job for life once they survive a tenure period. That’s crap! I couldn’t care less about tenure. Under tenure arrangements, employees can coast. That will never be allowed in a successful company. If you don’t perform, you can’t keep your job!

Get your fists up, it’s time to punch the clock and go a round with the boss…